Demokrati och penningpolitik

This essay examines the political discussion surrounding the proposal to relinquish the Swedish central bank and monetary policy from democratic control from the vantage point of democratic theory. The reform was proposed in late 1997 and debated twice in 1998. Through the lens of ideal types pertaining to different schools of democratic thought, the discussion is combed for different democratic ideals. The material studied is the governments along with transcripts from parliamentary floor deliberations. The transfer of monetary policy from the popularly elected parliament to a board of experts ties in with a classical faultline in political science, namely between popular or elitist governance. The material, thus, is engaged with the preconception that it will contain expressions of competitive elitist and participatory/deliberative democratic ideals. The findings partly confirm the preconception as expressions of competitive elitism and participatory/deliberative democratic ideals were present. However, they also revealed the existence of ideals reminiscent of protective liberalism

Hur botas resurssjukan?

This study is concerned with the subject of the resource curse. When countries discover significant natural resource reserves they counterintuitively exhibit dropping growth rates despite its high world market price. Several researchers have studied this phenomenon and labelled it the “resource curse”. They have tracked it to a number of causes, including how massive mineral windfalls affect the production structure and rate of diversification in the host economy. One significant outlier to this theory, however, is Norway. Despite being in possession of vast oil reserves, the country’s economy has not to a large extent fallen victim to the symptoms of the resource curse. This study attempts to test if Norway’s example can be applied generally to other afflicted economies. Using an econometric panel regression of data from a number of mineral-dependent economies the study draws from a case-study of the Norwegian response to the oil-findings. Due to a lack of data-availability, however, any reliable and definite conclusion is hard to draw. What may be a cause of despair may also be a suggestion for further studies aiming at wider and more precise data collection and definition of key variables

Förstelärarreformen och närbyråkraterna; om tjänstemannaperspektiv vid implementering av reformer

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att belysa tjänstemannaperspektivet vid reformer, med särskild betoning på närbyråkratiperspektivet och förutsättningarna för en lyckad implementering. För att göra detta granskar vi förstelärarreformen, med en fallstudie av implementeringen i Malmö kommun. Vi arbetar utifrån en övergripande frågeställning om hur reformer förstås ur tjänstemannaperspektiv, och två mer specifika där den första berör svårigheter i implementering och den andra vilken möjlighet tjänstemän har att påverka reformen genom sitt handlingsutrymme. Teoribildningen utgår ifrån Michael Lipskys syn på närbyråkrati. Lipsky menade att lärare är ett typfall av närbyråkrater, och därför bör det vara en bra utgångspunkt. För att kunna förstå den problematik som gestaltar sig i byråkratier med inslag av närbyråkrati, krävs att analysen sker ifrån ett bottom-up-perspektiv för att fånga de nyanser som påverkar hur en implementering genomförs. Vi har valt att även använda Lennart Lundquists modell för en lyckad implementering, som bygger på att tre kriterier är uppfyllda: De som implementerar en reform måste 1) Förstå reformen 2) Kunna implementera reformen och 3) Vilja implementera reformen. Förstelärarreformen genomfördes i syfte att höja kvalitén i den svenska skolan, ta tillvara på lärares kompetens och erbjuda en karriärsutveckling för lärare, och därmed öka yrkets attraktivitet. Reformen inleddes 2013, och går ut på att en lärare anställs med ett utökat uppdrag att ägna sig åt skolutveckling, och även får löneökning om minst 5000. Den ökade kostnaden finansieras med statsbidrag. Vi har genomfört intervjuer med en lärare och två förstelärare på tre olika skolor i Malmö. Skolorna är sinsemellan av olika karaktär för att göra studien bredare. Vi fann att reformen präglas av ganska oklar styrning, både från stat, kommun och skolledning. Förstelärararna har därmed stora möjligheter att påverka sina arbetsuppgifter, vilket medför både möjligheter och utmaningar. Malmö har valt att nedsätta undervisningstiden för sina förstelärare, vilket verkar vara viktigt, då samtliga lärare menar att tjänsten vore omöjlig att genomföra utan att extra tid avsätts. Noterbart är att detta inte krävdes i reformen, utan är en frivillig åtgärd från kommunen, som också innebär kostnader som inte ersätts med statsbidrag. I analysdelen finner vi att vi får för stöd för Lundquists modell. Mycket talar för att de tre stegen avgör om en reform som förstelärarreformen ska bli framgångsrik. Oklara instruktioner skapar vissa problem i implementeringen, men det är inte så oklart att reformen inte fungerar. Tänkbara problem är oklarhet bland kollegor vad förstelärare gör, och även för förstelärarna själva hur de ska utforma sina arbetsuppgifter. Lipskys teori om handlingsutrymme får stöd i att alla lärare upplever att de har stor frihet att själva utforma sina arbetsuppgifter. Vad gäller resursbristen leder nedsättningen i undervisningen till att det inte råder någon direkt brist på tid, i vart fall inte i större grad än för lärare i allmänhet. Samtidigt visar behovet av tidsnedsättning att tillräckliga resurser krävs för en reform. Vi har genom att besvara våra frågeställningar visat hur ett tjänstemannaperspektiv kan förklara hur reformer implementeras. I enlighet med bottom-up-perspektivet har vi påvisat hur de egenskaper som lyfts fram i de teorier vi använder kan förklara hur implementering formas av individuella tjänstemän

Compensation & Corporatism: Trade Openness, Risk and Social Policy in Mid 20th Century Sweden

This study will consider the link between trade openness and the preferences for social policy of key actors. In so doing, the findings will contribute to better understanding the qualitative link between globalization and social policy expansion (the compensation hypothesis) and complement previous quantitative findings. Given the importance of corporatism for the relationship, this study considers the peak associations of labor and business (the LO and the SAF) during the halcyon days of corporatism and on the verge of European trade integration. The preferences of the leaders of the LO and the SAF for compensatory social policy as well as their understanding of trade-related risks and trade openness are investigated by use of qualitative content analysis (QCA) on journals and convention material during the period of 1958-1961. The findings hold implications for how social policy as risk mitigation is understood in relation to the risks and benefits of trade. Mostly for the LO, but to a lesser extent for the SAF as well, the consequences of trade are sophistically gauged and acknowledged both for their benefits and risks (only LO). Risk mitigation is understood solely as active labor market policy and, in contrast to theory, not as unemployment insurance

Trade & Factor Mobility

This study considers the nexus between trade, productivity and misallocation. Drawing on the influential model by Melitz (2003) in which firm heterogeneity is exploited to derive aggregate productivity gains from trade liberalizations, the intermediating role of dismissal regulation in producing these gains are examined. The source of the post-liberalization increase in aggregate productivity is a selection effect whereby less efficient firms are forced to exit or relinquish market shares to the benefit of more efficient firms. To increase market shares and serve foreign export markets firms need to acquire productive resources, an activity that is crucially contingent on frictionless factor markets. This assumption has been largely neglected in previous research despite its central role in the realization of the selection effect. This study represents a first tentative step at examining how disturbances to factor markets impact productivity in the wake of a trade liberalization. Using the EMU as a liberalization-shock, the effect of dismissal regulation will be studied in a fixed-effects panel data model on a sample of the EU from 1996 to 2016. The results indicate support both for positive productivity effects of trade but more importantly for the interaction between trade and dismissal regulation. These findings lay the groundwork for more rigorous theoretical treatment on imperfect factor markets, heterogeneous firms and trade gains

External Evaluation of the NMBU Faculty Landscape and Society’s IEDS and SDP PhD Programmes

Evaluative summary according to our mandate: 1. Academic quality: We find that the PhD education for both study programmes demonstrate high acadmeic quality with clear learning outcomes, structure, education process, content and academic/supervisory support. 2. Formal requirements: We find that all the formal requirements are being met, but that there are some remianing challenges esepciella in relation to completion in time. We have concerns about the effects from that NMBU no longer applies a 4th year of study with duty work, and that alternative financing models for a 4th year is not pursued. 3. Study program and content: Both programmes are important with distinct profiles, attracting enough well-qualified PhD candidates and both have societal relevance. However, shrinking internal resources for funding of PhD positions constitutes a threat that needs to be addressed. 4. Strategy and syneriges: Tha Faculty's PhD education, including its national/international relevance and networking is good, but could be further strengthened. Synpergies between PhD programmes at LANDSAM and NMBU could be obtained by increased course collaboartion. LANDSAM should simplify the administrative oversight between the two PhD programmes. 5. Administration/organisation: We see opportunities for more efficient organisational leadreship and administrative support which would clarify roles and responsibilities across those involved in the two PhD programmes. This is an official external evaluation report commissioned by the Faculty Landscape and Society at NMBU (The Norwegian University of Life Sciences)</p

External Evaluation of the NMBU Faculty Landscape and Society’s IEDS and SDP PhD Programmes

Evaluative summary according to our mandate: 1. Academic quality: We find that the PhD education for both study programmes demonstrate high acadmeic quality with clear learning outcomes, structure, education process, content and academic/supervisory support. 2. Formal requirements: We find that all the formal requirements are being met, but that there are some remianing challenges esepciella in relation to completion in time. We have concerns about the effects from that NMBU no longer applies a 4th year of study with duty work, and that alternative financing models for a 4th year is not pursued. 3. Study program and content: Both programmes are important with distinct profiles, attracting enough well-qualified PhD candidates and both have societal relevance. However, shrinking internal resources for funding of PhD positions constitutes a threat that needs to be addressed. 4. Strategy and syneriges: Tha Faculty's PhD education, including its national/international relevance and networking is good, but could be further strengthened. Synpergies between PhD programmes at LANDSAM and NMBU could be obtained by increased course collaboartion. LANDSAM should simplify the administrative oversight between the two PhD programmes. 5. Administration/organisation: We see opportunities for more efficient organisational leadreship and administrative support which would clarify roles and responsibilities across those involved in the two PhD programmes. This is an official external evaluation report commissioned by the Faculty Landscape and Society at NMBU (The Norwegian University of Life Sciences)</p